Straight couple to go to High Court over right to enter civil partnership

A heterosexual couple will go to the High Court to fight for their right to enter a civil partnership.

Academics Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan, who live in Hammersmith, west London, launched their case after an official at the Kensington and Chelsea Register Office told they were not eligible for a civil partnership because they were not the same sex.

Dr Steinfeld and Mr Keidan, who have an eight-month-old child, argue that the Civil Partnership Act 2004 is ‘incompatible with equality law’, and over 30,000 people have signed a petition supporting their claim.

‘We are taking this case because the UK Government is barring us, and many thousands of opposite-sex couples like us, from the choice of forming a civil partnership, and we want this to change,’ said Dr Steinfeld, 34.

‘Personally, we wish to form a civil partnership because that captures the essence of our relationship and values. Civil partnerships are a symmetrical, modern social institution conferring almost identical legal rights and responsibilities as marriage, but without its historical baggage, gendered provisions and social expectations.’

Mr Keidan, 39, added that it was time the Government ‘demonstrated its commitment to equality by opening up civil partnerships to all couples.’

Solicitor Louise Whitfield of law firm Deighton Pierce Glynn called it a ‘clear case of discrimination’ that the Government ‘has failed to justify’.

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